Chapter 37: Knightly Error
Nimbrethil sat with Khelgar, Neeshka and Bishop around a table with a deck of cards laid out before her. It was late afternoon, and she had somehow managed to get coerced into playing something called poker. They were now going over the different hands and what beat what. Supposedly, five cards were dealt and then they would make bets based on what they had in their hand. She was unconsciously frowning as she listened to Bishop explaining the way it worked.
"Lass, this is called a game, yet you look like you're studying battle plans or something," Khelgar said.
"Is the point of the game to win more than you bet?" NImbrethil retorted and saw him nod. "Then I must first learn how to win."
Sighing Shandra leaned over the table, "It's not supposed to be taken this seriously. We're playing for fun not money."
"Come on Nim, you know how to have fun don't you?" Bishop drawled, the innuendo in his words not lost on anyone. Neeshka suddenly coughed in an attempt to hide her snickers, while Khelgar choked on his ale.
Smiling slightly, Nimbrethil shrugged. "I'll admit, I spent most of my life learning how to hunt, track and trap game. To me that was fun, although others I'm sure would find it boring."
"Well, it certainly paid off, for you caught me in your trap," Bishop whispered in her ear so the others didn't hear him. Seeing her smile widen he grinned and then picked up the cards. "Now let's see how much you've learned elf," he said aloud as he began shuffling.
Nimbrethil was about to protest that she wasn't ready when the door to the Flagon banged open and Sand and Nevalle walked in. Groaning inwardly, she sat back and waited for them to walk over to the table. From the expressions on their faces, she had a feeling she knew why they were here.
"Whatever you're selling, we aren't buying so get lost," Bishop sneered at them as they approached.
Ignoring him, Sand turned to Nimbrethil and studied her closely. From the look in her eyes it seemed she knew why they had come here, so he decided to get right to the point. "My dear girl, I just heard some most distressing news and I came here to see if there was some error on the part of Sir Nevalle," Sand said as calmly as possible. "Apparently there was an incident this morning at Sir Grayson's estate?"
"Go ahead squire," Nevalle said, the anger in his voice all too apparent. "Tell Sand here about how you dishonored your title with your actions."
"How I dishonored my title?" Nimbrethil sneered. "Just because Grayson is Nasher's favored knight doesn't give him the right to be rude, insulting, and condescending. He dishonored his title first, I merely reciprocated the favor." The others fell silent around them and Bishop stiffened in his chair beside her, his hand unconsciously going to one of his daggers at his waist.
Sand looked at Nevalle in puzzlement, "What does she mean by that Nevalle?"
"Don't tell me that the noble Grayson wasn't forthcoming with his part in the incident?" Nimbrethil laughed, but there was no humor in it. "I suppose he thought that because he was held in such high esteem that he could leave out the details and put all the blame on me."
Nevalle stared hard at her and saw nothing other than contempt for Grayson in her eyes. He considered himself a pretty good judge of people, and he just knew that she wasn't trying to make something up to save her own ass. Shifting uncomfortably, he realized that he had accepted Sir Grayson's side of the story as being all there was to it, and now he was embarassed. Usually he took great pains to verify facts before confronting the guilty party, but as it was Sir Grayson, he had been quick to believe the worst of her. "Sir Grayson told me that you had deliberately set loose his pet panther in the stable yard out of spite for having to muck out the stable."
Bishop busted out laughing, he couldn't help it. "If you took some time to get to know your newest "squire" better, you would know that she would never do anything out of spite. She leaves that to the puffed up, powdered court ladies." Turning to Nim he asked, "What did you tell the panther to do?"
"You mean she can talk to animals other than her companion?" Neeshka asked in surprise.
"Of course she can," Bishop snorted. "All rangers can communicate with animals to some degree, but Nim has had a lot of time to hone her talents." Turning back to the elf, he raised an eyebrow, waiting for her answer.
"I just asked him to spook the horses a little," Nimbrethil smiled slightly. "I also made sure that they were spooked right towards Grayson who ended up in a mud puddle. You know, make the punishment fit the crime. After all the dirt that came out of his mouth, it was the least he deserved. Needless to say someone is going to have quite the cleaning job. I actually wanted to cut off his personal jewels but thought that might be too extreme."
The others around her gasped at the implication and then started laughing. Khelgar and Bishop both fell off their chairs they were laughing so hard. Casavir watched them in dismay. A serious breach of etiquette had happened and they were acting like it was an act in a comedic play. He saw Nevalle's face turn red with not only embarassment, but anger as well.
"What exactly did Sir Grayson say to warrant such action squire?" Nevalle cut in, furious that they thought the situation so funny.
"If he had stuck to talking down to me like I was some kind of half-wit, then I could have ignored him," she sneered. "But going that extra step and lecturing me about who I choose to spend my time with and comparing me to the whores in the docks was the icing on the cake," she hissed angrily.
Bishop stopped laughing and jumped to his feet. "By the Hells, he called you a what?" the snarl in his voice was enough to cause several of the others to back away.
"Calm down Bishop," Nimbrethil snapped. "He didn't call me one, but he implied it. I will tell all of you the same as I told him. What I do in my personal life is nobody's business but my own. I will not tolerate such treatment from anyone, no matter how high in Nasher's favor they are. Grayson should consider himself lucky that I didn't cut out his tongue or worse."
Nevalle sighed, for she was tellling the truth, he could hear it in her voice. He had not thought it possible for the knight to behave in such a manner, but apparently he had. "I'm sorry now that I did not look into the matter further before coming here. I had not thought Sir Grayson capable of such behavior, but apparently I was wrong. Even the best of knights are still human and just as prone as the next person to lapses in judgement."
"Yes, I have noticed that humans tend to have such lapses in judgement quite often," Nimbrethil said disdainfully, with emphasis on the word humans.
"Given the circumstances I'll let that remark slide, this time," Nevalle warned. "I will discuss the matter with Lord Nasher and see what is to be done. In the meantime, I think it best if you stay away from Sir Grayson. I don't want anymore incidents." He nodded at them and then left, not happy about what had transpired.
The others were silent as they watched him go. Sand turned back to the table, unsure what to say to her. He had been ready to believe Nevalle and think the worst of her. He was wondering if he should say something in the way of an apology and then realized how silly that was. One should never apologize for something they only thought about, only for something they actually did. Although he was glad now that he had chosen to ask her about the situation rather than accuse her.
Casavir spoke up, "I'm not as surprised as Sir Nevalle that this happened. Sir Grayson always struck me as the type more suited to a monastery. Apparently, the news has spread about your relationship with Bishop. Given his rather shady past, this attitude was to be expected."
"Excuse me, but I need some air," Nimbrethil stood up, glared at him, and left the table, heading towards her room.
Bishop started to follow her and then stopped to snarl at Casavir, "Good going paladin, maybe you should be taking lessons from Sand too."
"I'm merely pointing out the facts Bishop," Casavir retorted angrily. "She was warned and so were you. Now, you'll just have to live with the consequences."
Shandra managed to stop Duncan before he could do anything and hissed at him to stay out of it. Going over to the two of them she cleared her throat loudly. "Shall I go get your weapons for you so you can hack each other apart over something as trivial as what other people say and think?" she asked acidly. Casavir had the grace to flush in embarassment, but Bishop simply glared at her, then turned and stalked off.
"I'm sorry Shandra," Casavir began but was cut off.
"It's not me you need to apologize too," Shandra said pointedly. "I know you didn't mean for your words to sound like they did, but the fact is, to Nimbrethil, it sounded like a condemnation. My mother always told me to think before I spoke and maybe you should follow that advice too."
Meanwhile, Bishop had reached her room to find she had dressed in her hunting leathers and weapons. She had just finished stringing her bow when he arrived. "If anyone ever speaks to you like that again, I'll cut their tongues out and stuff them down their throats," Bishop snarled.
"You will do no such thing," Nimbrethil looked at him. "I can handle these situations myself, albeit not in the way I really want to." She stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Listen, I expect that many people will think the same way, but I have to admit I didn't expect someone like Grayson to behave the way he did. He caught me by surprise is all and, I admit, I might have overreacted. Others can say and think whatever they want, I don't care about them. They're just mindless sheep with nothing in their lives to make them happy, so they try to make others as miserable as they are."
"I don't like that people talk about you like that," Bishop growled half-heartedly, her nearness diffusing his outrage somewhat.
"You can't kill everyone who says an unflattering word Bishop," Nimbrethil smiled. "There'd be no one left in the world." Reaching up she gave him a quick kiss. "Let's get out of here for a while. I need to let off some steam," she told him with a sly grin.
Bishop couldn't keep from grinning himself, and followed her down the back steps. She certainly could take care of herself, she had proven that time and again. Still, he would make sure that the next person who said something like that to her was very sorry they did. He would just make sure no one else found out about it.